If I were hard pressed to choose only one aspect, I’d say the most drastic adaptation that the art of photography has undergone during the course of my career is the shift in how most people will view the finished product. Gone are the days of the printed photograph, as the majority of people who see your work are likely to be viewing it digitally. This took some getting used to. I had to learn to accept that the first thing most folks will now do, almost involuntarily upon encountering my work, is to take their little fingers and expand my photograph into oblivion. They will often do this—start trying to get a closer look at something— before they’ve even taken a moment to view the photograph as it was presented!

Okay, there might still be some residual anger at this newfound power that the public has been given, but certainly not as much as I once had. Initially, you might have heard me screaming something absurd, like, “But the photo was never intended to be viewed like that!”

Before, "in the olden days," with print, sure a person could press their eyeball up against the printed page like a lunatic, but it’s not the same as being able to hold that photograph digitally in the palm of your hand, and then zoom into a subject’s facial pores with almost medical precision. Who could have foreseen that viewing a photo in that way would ever become not only an option, but the default way people experience photography?! Certainly not me, but as with anything, you must accept, adapt, and embrace the new reality, or else, die on the vine. I am now as guilty as the next person—the first thing I find myself doing to a photograph on my iPhone is expanding it a bit with my fingers to get a slightly closer look at something.

The layperson might not realize this, but this new zooming capability created a lot more work for a photographer and suddenly required a lot more fastidious set dressing. Sure, a thing is in the very far background of your shot, but thanks to everyone’s new magic fingers, what is the likelihood that it will stay there?

I will reiterate that this was quite maddening at first and took some getting used to, but as with so many technological innovations, once you get past the learning curve and start embracing all the new possibilities, you find it’s not the burden you initially thought it was. If anything, it turns out to be surprisingly liberating!

Take a photograph like the one above, for example. In the print era, I would have needed to break this photo down into several smaller sections, and print multiple photos, if I wanted you to be able to focus more closely on the various aspects of this garden. But now, especially when viewed at full resolution, I can hand you this one single image, and you can explore it at your own leisure, zooming in and out of the various facets of this yard as something strikes your fancy or you feel something warrants closer inspection.

I enjoy having this power as much as the next person, especially when viewing residential landscape photography. I am constantly on the hunt for new ideas, new beautiful creations I can incorporate into my own yard or a client’s yard, and I absolutely love being able to zoom in and take a closer look at how something was built or accomplished. Or even identify the exact variety of plant, thanks to my ability to zoom right in and closely examine a flower or foliage.

However, there is a flip side to this -- a drawback to presenting a sprawling yard all at once in a single frame -- which is why you might notice that only a few of the yards in my portfolio are shot this way. There is a logistical reason.

Rather than taking the yard section by section, if you want to get an expansive shot like this, you have to get the entire yard properly lit and in a state of near-perfect preparedness ALL AT ONCE. This can be expensive, time consuming, and (I’ll be quite honest) a bit overwhelming. Remember, I am often operating alone, as a one man show, so trying to get everything perfect, all at once, is a bit like playing whack-a-mole, and it can be a tad daunting. I encourage anyone to go out and shoot like this once or twice, and then come back and still ask me why I don’t shoot every landscape in this way. Thankfully, however, only a few yards even warrant this kind of treatment, and due the amount of work and preparation involved, I reserve attempting these wide, expansive, shots only for the best of the best.

Another major innovation and transition (and one that I am super grateful happened just before my time), is the move away from darkrooms and towards digital processing. I think it has saved my sanity on more than one occasion! It provides great peace of mind to know that just because a few stray leaves blew into your frame, unnoticed, at the last minute, you do not have to go back and re-shoot the whole yard. You can just clean those leaves up in Photoshop!

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Of course, it doesn’t have to be leaves, that was just an example, it can be whatever… like, I don’t know… a STEAMING PILE OF DOG SHIT?